When she arrives at the private airport terminal, Jane senses something wrong and finds a man tied up in the back room, who tells her that there were three people, one a vamp, and that he heard screaming out at the plane. When Jane goes to investigate, she smells fresh blood, and when she gets inside, she sees blood everywhere.
Deer Antlers Piercing Through His Shoulders: Jane finds the body of pilot Dan crucified in a horrifying scene, then discovers the new first mate dead on the bed she had slept on, with an envelope with her name on it on his body. The shock of the scene brings another vision to mind, one she can’t place but can’t get out of her head. Going back into the terminal, Jane frees the trussed-up man and borrows his motorcycle to get away. Jane asks the man to wait ten minutes before calling the police. While she’s riding off, it occurs to Jane that if she really wanted to (and part of her does) she could disappear, and she throws away her new cell phone.
As Jane thinks over the last couple of months and her loss of Molly and Rick, she also faults herself for not thinking that someone after her may hurt someone else. Beast’s comments that she is a killer only do not help. Withdrawing five thousand dollars, just in case she needs it, Jane knows she will have to fly on a commercial plane to get back to New Orleans, meaning she can’t take her weapons. She goes to a UPS store, packs everything carefully, and overnights the packages to herself. Jane calls Bruiser from a pay phone to tell him what happened, and after that Reach calls Jane on the same phone, telling her that he has the security tapes—visual proof that she isn’t human. He says if he ever feels threatened he will use them.
After riding around Seattle, Jane heads to the main airport, parking the borrowed bike, and leaves a phone message for the man the bike belongs to as to where he can find it, along with a hundred-dollar bill. While killing time before her flight, Jane opens the note left to her on the first mate’s dead body. In very formal language and script, she is told that she killed the letter writer’s Enforcer (the man from the hotel in Asheville), and that she will die along with her Master, which she assumes means Leo. As she drinks a beer, which the vamp-master smells like, Beast points out that may be important. While mulling over the bits and pieces of information she has, Jane decides to contact Derek Lee to see if one of his guys can find anything on the Enforcer she killed, and to acquire a couple of guys that would work just for her—a pointed comment that doesn’t go unnoticed by Derek.
When Jane gets home, she showers and heads over to see Aggie One Feather, who at first is resistant to help Jane go to water again right then, but then agrees. During the ritual, Aggie, whose face seems to be growing a wolf snout, asks Jane what she is bothered by that she never finished, and Jane says the revenge of the murder of her father and rape of her mother.
I Never Had a Chance to Say Good-bye: Aggie-with-the-snout tells Jane that she was just five, and asks who else she told what was going on. Jane remembers going down the hill to her grandmother’s house, and being put on a horse, and also realizes that her grandmother was also a skinwalker. Then the door opens, interrupting Jane’s vision, and Aggie says she’s sorry she was late getting there. Jane thanks her and says she is done anyway.
Later Jane gets woken up by her phone, with Bruiser asking her to come and help them, as Leo’s clan home is under attack. While Bruiser argues with Leo about how he needs to leave, Jane hears sounds that tell her Bruiser has been hit by a shot. Jane finds her boxes of delivered weapons on the doorstep, and puts some together before heading off. Jane arrives to find emergency vehicles, with Bruiser in one of them. The paramedics allow her to stay with Bruiser because he claims she is his wife and can make legal decisions for him. During their discussion about the letter Jane received, Bruiser loses consciousness. Jane calls Katie, threatening to kill her if she doesn’t send someone to heal Bruiser immediately.
Jane knocks the ambulance driver out of the way to keep him from taking Bruiser to the hospital rather than waiting for the vamp Katie has agreed to send, and ends up getting restrained by law enforcement until they realize what she was doing. Koun, a large Celtic vamp, arrives to help Bruiser, and afterward, he tells Jane she owes him a boon—she must fight in his place, as he is now too weak. Jane agrees, and joins the fight. Vamp Innara is too gun –ho for Jane’s and Derek’s tastes, and they tell her that killing everyone there will not leave them anyone to question. After they bring Innara around to their way of thinking, Jane and Derek decide to use flash grenades. Jane and Girrard the Mercy Blade go into the barn together, and when they come out, they find Innara staking another vamp.
I Whirled and Caught the Naked Man: Since Innara is using a silver-tipped stake, Jane yanks her arm away. Innara responds by going for Jane’s throat, but gets a big surprise from Jane’s silver mesh collar. Jena, Innara’s anamchara, runs over to get Jane, but Jane pushes her away. Examining the vamp that Innara had been staking, Jane smells Leo’s blood on him, and the way she goes about it disturbs Derek, who nonetheless answers Jane’s question about Leo’s whereabouts—he’s been taken. They agree to keep the vamp for questioning, but out of nowhere Grégoire comes flying, attacking the hostage. Jane stops him, explaining what they plan to do. Grégoire says he will bring his silver cages.
At Katie’s, Jane has a brief discussion with Tom, Katie’s blood-servant, and learns that the girls have all been sent away for the night. Jane also sees Bethany, the healer, working on Bruiser. In the parlor, the two cages are in the middle of the room with the vamps inside, and one of them decides to talk. He doesn’t give up his master’s name but swears he doesn’t know where Leo has been taken. Derek switches gears and brings up the name of the Enforcer that Jane shot in her hotel room. The vamp says that the man was there to learn what he could about Leo’s Enforcer (Jane, since she made the mistake of announcing it once) in order to issue a Blood Challenge. According to the Vampira Carta, that is a first step in challenging another master. Katie comes over to Jane, blaming her for the vamp war going on, and Bruiser comes into the room, saying it is not her fault, then collapses. Jane picks him up and carries him to another room, where Katie comes in and tells Bruiser that he will live and still be mostly human.
Your Security Sucks: Katie tells Jane that she knows Jane did not drink from Leo, and wonders why he allowed her to claim the title of Enforcer without doing so, also saying that Jane doing so was like her own situation when she asked to be turned so many years ago. Katie also states that Jane is without protection of the MOC. Jane points out that Leo could have forced her into submission any time he wanted to, yet chose not to, so it must be for a reason. Jane tells Katie to keep both herself and Bruiser alive, and walks out into the assembled group, speaking to both Koun and Derek, and the latter tells her that the blood she sent from Sedona was lost in the fire. Jane replies that she has some at her house from the Seattle clan’s human survivors. Once she gets outside, Jane feels relief that she succeeded in staying alive.
At home, Jane showers, and when she gets out, she hears a noise that lets her know someone is in the house, the scent identifying a human male. Upon examination, it seems the only item missing is the package of blood vials. Mulling over the possibilities for a traitor, wondering who it could be since Leo feeds from his people and would know of their plans, and that Bruiser knows who those people are, Jane yanks open her door to find one of Derek’s guys. After a brief conversation, she knows he is not the one who had been in her house. After he leaves, Jane hears a voice, in the dark, telling her that her house security leaves something to be desired—her new guy, sent from Derek, has arrived: Eli Younger. They discuss terms, which include the following: the house needs a security upgrade, Eli cooks but won’t buy the food, and he has a brother who will be joining them. Jane agrees to his fee, surprised to find herself saying she will be sticking around. Jane turns on the lights so the two can get a look at each other.